No, I’m talking about the actual far left. The Afd has more momentum atm, but there has always been presence of both the far right and far left in East Germany. Here’s some bits of an interesting article from September 2023 by Bloomberg that demonstrates what I’m talking about:

A fifth of German voters would consider backing a new party that may be established by a far-left politician who has opposed weapons deliveries to Ukraine, according to a poll published Monday.

Sahra Wagenknecht of the Left party — which traces its roots to East Germany’s communist party — has said she will make a decision on whether to set up a breakaway group by the end of this year.

Wagenknecht’s move is potentially significant, since she could potentially woo voters away from the far-right Alternative for Germany, which is leading in the polls in the three eastern German regions due to hold elections next fall.

Among AfD voters, 29% said they could contemplate backing Wagenknecht, compared with 55% of Left voters, according to the Sept. 15-20 YouGov poll of 2,134 people. At 29%, potential support for Wagenknecht is higher in eastern Germany than in the west, where it’s at 19%, the poll showed.

Source: https://archive.is/20230925113239/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-25/fifth-of-germans-open-to-backing-new-far-left-party-poll-shows#selection-4885.0-4885.13

That’s quite a bit of overlap. The far left isn’t exactly dead in East Germany as you seem to describe it, and neither is the far right. They work in tandum alongside jihadists to keep normal Germans up at night. That’s why Germans constantly protest extremism and vote in guys like Scholz.